According to the
all-knowing, undisputable omnipotence of the totally not-always-accurate-but-still-trusted
Wikipedia, the term “infomania” is
used to describe a debilitating state
of information overload.
It’s also known as distraction
caused by the urge to check email,
text, and other sources of information (Facebook, anyone?), which
causes the person to neglect other
more important things, like talking
to friends and family in person.

Many, or even most, students
have infomania. Few students are
able to sit down at the computer and
work on a project without opening
up an extra window, or five, with
email, Facebook, music, sports
forums, bus schedules, and some
shameful celebrity gossip page, all
available for distraction while trying
to write a paper.
Some students even try to work
on several projects at once, updating
resumes while writing a paper and
reviewing notes for a test.
They may think they’re getting
lots of work done at once, but, woe-

All editorial content appearing in Nexus is property of the
Nexus Publishing Society. Stories, photographs, and artwork
contained herein cannot be reproduced without written permission of the Nexus Publishing Society. The views and opinions
expressed herein are those of the authors, not of Nexus. Nexus
has no official ties to the administration of Camosun College.
One copy of Nexus is available per issue, per person.
Nexus is printed on recycled paper.
Nexus is a member of Canadian University Press.
Send a letter
Nexus prints letters that are 250 words or less in response to
previous stories. Nexus reserves the right to refuse publication of letters. Letters must include full name and student
number (not printed). Nexus accepts all letters by email to
nexus@nexusnewspaper.com
Editorial meetings
Come out to our weekly Nexus editorial meetings, where
all Camosun students can get involved in their student
newspaper. Meetings take place every Tuesday at 11:30 am
in the Nexus office, Richmond House 201, Lansdowne. Call
250-370-3591 or email nexus@nexusnewspaper.com for
more information.

Help build
our team
Nexus needs student volunteers

250-370-3591
nexus@nexusnewspaper.com
nexusnewspaper.com

Open Space

fully, they are not. Students are getting less done, and they’re getting
dumber as they do it.
According to a recent study,
excessive use of technology reduces
intelligence. The study concluded
that those that are distracted by
emails and phone messages while
working had a 10-point fall in their
IQ. That’s twice the effect that marijuana has on IQ.
So replying to emails and checking phone messages is worse than
hitting the bong before cramming
for that biology midterm. In fact,
multitasking affects productivity
about the same amount as missing a
night’s sleep. Unless you are a cardcarrying Mensa member, that’s 10
points you can’t afford.
These days, many students and
young people are the absolute pros
at multitasking. Sitting in class,
listening to the instructor while
taking notes, reading emails, and
texting a friend is not an unusual
scene at Camosun. Students are the
LA Lakers of multitaskers; they are
champions.
This generation is conditioned
to multitask and most think it’s a
good thing. Students are told it’s a
skill that employers look for.
They’ve received constant
stimulation since childhood, the
kind that the previous generation
didn’t have when they were kids.
Ever notice the percentage of
people on the bus poking at their
iPhones and BlackBerries? It’s,
roughly and anecdotally, about 97
percent.

There could be a zombie apocalypse and no one would notice because they are too busy texting.
The effect of all of this infomania
can be disastrous. Studies have not
only found that multitasking and
distractions lower IQs, but it also
changes the structure of the brain,
turning people into cursory readers,
distracted and shallow thinkers, and
superficial learners.
And with more technological

distractions becoming available, the
problem is going to get worse.
The solution is learning to slow
down and knowing when to focus
attention on one task at a time. It
may hurt to turn off a cell phone,
but it’s better in the long run if it
means higher productivity and a
happier brain.
What do you think?
nexus@nexusnewspaper.com
or TEXTBACK to 604–223–0076.

Open Space accepts submissions from Camosun students. Submissions to Open Space should be
400 words or less. Responses to previous articles in Nexus should be 250 words or less.
Email submissions to nexus@nexusnewspaper.com and include your name and student number.

Pope remarks a sign of progressiveness
Beth Storheim
The Gateway (University of Alberta)

EDMONTON (CUP)—For the
first time ever, a pope has admitted
that condoms may be used in certain
cases to prevent the spread of HIV,
which is one small step towards the
end of the magisterial denial of the
value of contraception.
Pope Benedict stunned the
world when he made some apparently pro-contraceptive remarks
in a new book released on Nov.
23, though the Catholic Church
is nowhere near to ending the ban
just yet.

Letters

CONTRIBUTORS

December 1, 2010

JESSICA TAI

Nexus
Editorial

College staff
deserve respect,
understanding

I’m writing to express my
disappointment in the editorial
Camosun customer service fails,
printed in the November 17 issue
of Nexus.
I have been a support-staff employee for over 20 years; I began
as a student. The support staff of
the college support students every
day in their education and through
many events and services, such as
bursaries, an endowment fund, a
literacy award bursary, donations
to the student food bank, hampers for students, and campaigns
and donations to services like the
childcare centres to ensure access
to education is maintained.
Cuts to the college budget result

For decades, the Vatican has
maintained its position that the use
of contraceptives is both immoral
and an ineffective method of HIVAIDS prevention.
But in a book-length interview
with German journalist Peter Seewald, Pope Benedict indicated that
“in certain cases, where the intention is to reduce the risk of infection,
[condom use] can nevertheless be
a first step on the way to another,
more humane sexuality.”
The Pope then gave an example
of a situation where condom use
might be justifiable, saying, “There

may be a basis in the case of some
individuals, as perhaps when a
male prostitute uses a condom,
where this can be a first step in the
direction of a moralization, a first
assumption of responsibility.”
Pope Benedict’s statements
illustrate a small shift towards a
more progressive papal view of
morality and ethics, and are perhaps
a sign that more dialogue on contraception and HIV-AIDS prevention is
going to happen in the future.
Just last year, the Pope said that
far from fighting AIDS, condom use
“even aggravates the problems.”

in layoffs. This means service problems and additional stress on staff
due to increased workload.
Our student population right
now is at 125 percent capacity.
Students are being affected and
the staff shares this frustration and
wants to provide the best service
possible.
Sometimes the policies and
practices in place create issues for
staff and students.
As an employee, and as a representative of the support staff, I
ask we each show understanding
and respect during these times. It
could be you on the other side of
the counter someday.
Our goal is to provide the service
necessary for success and provide a
positive learning outcome.

TEXTBACK

Louise Oetting
CUPE 2081, Camosun College

Tell us what you think. Send a
text to 604–223–0076.
“About time MMA isn’t painted
as a savage sport and rather an art
form. Shawn O’Hara’s article last
year smeared MMA as a bunch of
jocks.”
“The college will hire more
management but is reluctant to
hire maintenance or custodians
or groundskeepers. Top-heavy
management!”
“Overheard in my business
class: ‘Fuck, I wish I could smoke in
class and have a rye.’ Haha, thought

In light of the Pope’s recent,
more enlightened statements, perhaps there will be a reversal of the
papal ban on contraception for
everyone, and not just for male
prostitutes.
It’s high time the Vatican got
with the program, and caught up
to the many numbers of their flock
who actively disagree with and
ignore this ban.
For now, we hope that the Catholic Church, rather than leaving its
head stuck in the sands of denial,
will open the doors to discussion and
inquiry regarding contraception.

Nexus might like that.”
“Ed Sum would give the birth of
Christ a three out of five.”
“Coach obsessed to win: What
a waste of a quarter-million dollars
from the students.”
“Thanks to [online Nexus column] Screwed, I can’t get the image
of a girl getting banged by a duck
out of my head.”
Nexus reserves the right to edit
or exclude submissions for any reason. Discriminatory or libelous texts
will not be printed.

NEWS

nexus@nexusnewspaper.com

College dealing with illegal downloading
Staff Writer

Camosun plans to tighten up on
illegal downloading at school due to
threatening letters from copyright
enforcement companies.
According to Don Gilbert,
Camosun’s manager of computing services, the school has received
about 30 registered letters over the
past few months from organizations
like the Motion Picture Association of America and the American
Society of Composers, Authors, and
Publishers.
“The movie publishers, the
music publishers, all have organizations that have enforcement branches,” says Gilbert. “They threaten all
kinds of legal ramifications.”
Although he doesn’t want to
restrict internet use for students,
he says he needs to take action. In
the next six months Camosun plans
to make sites like bittorrent.com
slower for students to use at school
so it’s harder to download things
like movies and music.
“There are laws that we have
to enforce,” says Gilbert. “We’re
very concerned with how casual
students are about stealing intellectual property.”
He says the reason some students download at school is the fast
internet connection the college has,
adding that it’s faster than most
people’s “pipes” at home.

“I can understand the desire to
come in and use that pipe,” says
Gilbert, “but it isn’t meant for recreation; it’s meant for teaching and
learning.”
Health care attendant student
Emily Chase says if students want
to download illegally, they should
do it at home, not on the school
network, and she understands the
school’s position.

“We’re very concerned
with how casual
students are about
stealing intellectual
property.”
Don Gilbert
camosun college

“I can see why the school would
be upset with people doing illegal
downloading, for sure,” says Chase.
“The school computers are for
school work.”
University transfer student Gabrielle Hanlon has never downloaded
anything illegally, and says she
wouldn’t know how to if she tried,
but she says students shouldn’t
have restrictions on their internet
use at school.
“Students should be able to

download whatever they want,”
says Hanlon, “as long as they aren’t
occupying the computers for an
excessive amount of time.”
The school has caught individuals downloading illegally before.
Gilbert says the student usually just
gets a warning, but if they are caught
again they can get their internet
access revoked for a period of time,
which is normally three months.
His department also watches for
spikes in internet usage at unusual
times.
“If we see huge amounts of traffic at three in the morning, we know
that somebody’s doing something
that they would rather not be noticed, but it just stands right out,”
says Gilbert.
Gilbert says the school can track
what websites students visit. The
college has a contractual agreement
with the government, where they
have to match a user name with an
IP address, which is why students
must log in. However, Gilbert says
no one usually looks at these logs.
“We monitor as much as we
have to,” he says. “We have logs,
but we don’t have anybody looking
at them.”
The only websites the school
actively blocks are ones that involve child pornography and hatred
against an identifiable group,
because those sites are illegal in
Canada.

Surfing the waves of piracy.

But blocking websites can be
tricky. Gilbert says it’s done by filtering a certain word in the search
engine, so if the school were to
filter the word “sex,” then students wouldn’t be able to search
for things like sex education, or
sexual disease.
Gilbert says he wants to keep
student internet access as open as
he can, so to avoid restrictions he encourages students to use discretion
in their internet use at school.
“We don’t care if you go to Facebook in the lab,” says Gilbert. “The
model we’ve found that’s appropriate is acceptable use. Don’t do anything illegal, first and foremost.”
What do you think?
nexus@nexusnewspaper.com
or TEXTBACK to 604–223–0076.

School system fails some college students
Sean Hayden
Contributing writer

On October 29, minister of
education George Abbott met with
75 high-school students at the BC
Student Voice conference to talk
about building an education system
that supports and nurtures students
to discover their element and passion in life.
While provincial policy emphasizes students’ passions, the practical skills required by secondary
institutions are stressed less often.
Allowing for flexible assignment
deadlines, for example, has become
an issue for discussion and implementation in secondary schools.
Alternatives to the traditional
essay are already allowed in some
high schools. Even the exam structure has been cut back radically, as
students are only required by the

Ministry to take compulsory exams
in English and math.
Camosun philosophy instructor
Justine Noel feels that high-school
students are coming into college
fairly well equipped, but points out
that “secondary English classes are
heavily weighted towards technology-based assignments. When
it comes to spelling and analytic
rigour, many of our students need
more work.”
Kim McKay, an instructor in the
Writing Centre, agrees that writing
difficulties are “widespread.”
“Students can write informative papers, but often lack the analytic discipline to propose a clear
thesis and support each point,”
says McKay.
Other instructors, such as criminal justice instructor Eva Wilmot,
think high-school students are

prepared just fine by their secondary-school curriculum.
“On the whole, students come
well equipped for the workload and
pace,” says Wilmot.
Kelsey Dubois, a Camosun associate arts student who graduated
from St. Andrews Catholic High
School, says that “the quantity of
homework and the level of difficulty
is similar” between high school and
college, but that high school let her
down in writing.
Jennifer Mann, a creative writing student who went to St. Michaels
University School, also entered college unprepared in writing.
“I failed my first essay at
Camosun,” she says. “I had absolutely no grammar skills. More peer
editing would have helped in high
school, too.”
Mann says that high school

by ERIN BALL

Camosun alumni
rewarded for success

alex haro

Renée Andor

NEWS BRIEFS

didn’t enforce deadlines enough.
“It was so easy to make excuses
and to get extensions,” she says.
“Here, you can’t do that as often.”
An area where many students
falter is communication, and some
feel this is due to a lack of real writing training in high school.
“When it comes to writing essays, I’d say I was about 50-percent
prepared,” says Dubois. “I had no
proper research-essay training or
knowledge of how to do proper
citations.”
Thinking back on high school,
Camosun first-year student Regan
Alsdorf, who went to Claremont
Secondary, recalls some words of
wisdom from her time there.
“I’ll never forget one line from
an inspiring teacher,” says Alsdorf. “Don’t work harder, work
smarter.”

What’s your irrational fear and why?

B y Jina Mousseau

Ivan Fischer

Alexandria Crawshaw

Ali Zeidan

David Dugas

Jimena Villanueva

“I don’t like people looking
at the back of my head. So I
sit at the back of the class.
It sucks if I’m late, and bus
rides are kind of awkward.”

“Drowning. I spent my
life growing up near the
ocean and I love it, but the
irrational thing is I’m most
afraid of it.”

“I don’t like people
watching me eat or looking
at my food. I feel like it’s
rude.”

“Being trapped under ice. It
would be worse than being
trapped in a fire; at least
you could try and escape
that. Just not being able to
reach the surface and slowly
losing oxygen...”

“Little bugs that jump,
because when you try to
kill them you don’t know if
they’ll jump on you.”

Camosun alumni Dr. Sarah
Sampson has won Camosun’s
2010 Distinguished Alumni
Award. Sampson is an equine
surgeon and a university professor at Mississippi State
University in Starkville. She
attended Camosun back in 1993
as a university transfer student
in sciences. She called the halls
of Camosun home for three
years before she transferred to
Washington State University to
complete a bachelor of science
in animal studies, and eventually went on to complete
a PhD in equine surgery and
sports medicine. Camosun’s
Distinguished Alumni Award
is presented every June and
November to alumni that graduated more than 10 years ago.

Camosun stops
printing calendar
For the first time in almost
40 years, Camosun College
will not be printing a college
calendar. The calendar was a
200-plus-page document where
students could find information
on programs, important dates,
policies, and student services.
Now the college is charging
into the electronic age and has
decided to let students and the
public to rely on the website to
get all the information they need.
The decision to stop printing
a college calendar is also an
environmental one, as it will save
paper and energy.

Empress chef wins
local competition
Eight south-island chefs
went head-to-head on Sunday,
November 14 to see which chef
would reign supreme. Chef
Graham Smith (assisted by John
Lance) from the Empress won
the title of Chef of the Year after
cooking a four-course meal for
12 people. Six chefs judged the
event and based their scores on
composition, balance, originality,
and use of local products. The
event was open to the public and
the proceeds go towards bursaries and scholarships for young
cooks. Chef Graham Smith, as
well as chef Kyle Campbell and
chef Andrew Dickinson, who
came in second and third place,
are all graduates of Camosun’s
professional cook training
program.

Galloping Goose
gets an upgrade
The CRD’s pride and joy, the
Galloping Goose Trail, is getting
a facelift. The regional parks
department is taking advantage
of the bad weather while the
trail is less busy to add a layer of
aggregate to two kilometers of
trail between Charters and Todd
trestles in Sooke. Bike riders
and leisure walkers beware—the
construction will require closure
of the main parking lot on Sooke
River Road, as well as the section
of the trail in question from
December 1-10. But Galloping
Goose junkies can still access
the trail from Sooke Potholes in
the overflow parking on Sooke
River Road. Info on the closure
and detours can be found at crd.
bc.ca/parks, and on the trail.

NEWS

December 1, 2010

Renée Andor
Staff writer

Michele Spencer recently received the BC Lieutenant Governor
Silver Medal Award at her graduation ceremony.
Spencer won the award for her
high grade point average, an 8.78
out of a possible 9, and for her
contributions to the indigenous
family support program she recently
graduated from.
She never expected to win the
award and says she’s very grateful
to be chosen as the recipient.
“I just thought my heart would
burst, because it was just such a
huge honour,” says Spencer.
Spencer is 42 years old. She
dropped out of high school in grade
10 and worked while she raised
her daughter. She started taking
night classes a couple of years ago
and got her high school diploma in
2009, one year after her daughter
received hers.
She then returned to school fulltime at Camosun in the indigenous
family support program last fall,
which she says was a difficult decision for her to make.
“I had spent most of my life

working and I was really secure in
being able to work,” says Spencer,
“but to go to school full-time and not
have a job was really quite frightening. I felt very vulnerable.”
Spencer says the award is confirmation that she’s on the right
path with her decision to return
to school. Besides ensuring she
did well in the program, Spencer
went a step further and helped her
classmates succeed.
Fellow student Susan Perry was
in the program with Spencer last
year. She says no one in the class is
surprised Spencer won the award,
and everyone benefitted from her
help.
“I couldn’t think of anybody
more deserving,” says Perry. “She’s
more than just a classmate; she’s
like a teacher and a best friend.”
Spencer organized study groups,
helped people on their projects, gave
advice, and even gave people rides
when they needed them. She says
she loves people and tried to help her
classmates in any way she could.
“My education isn’t just about
me; it’s about all of us working together and realizing our potential,”
says Spencer.

GRAB A NEXUS
Copies of Nexus are now
located on the outskirts of
campus in our handy blue
boxes.
Find us near the Richmond
and Foul Bay bus stops at
Lansdowne, and near the
bus shelter at Interurban.

Robert Wells, an instructor in
the program, nominated Spencer.
He has taught at the college for 15
years and has never nominated a
student before. He says Spencer was
a unique student and she needed to
be recognized.
“She’s the kind of person that
teachers really hope to see in their
classroom,” says Wells, “the kind
of a person who can understand
the material and is not only concerned with her own success, but
is prepared to make sure that her
fellow students are coming along
with it as well.”
Spencer is in Camosun’s university transfer program right now, and
plans to go to UVic to get her degree
in psychology. Her ultimate goal is
to get her masters in counselling and
work with aboriginal youth.
She is of Lakota descent, but
says she felt disconnected to her
native ancestry because she grew
up outside of her culture.
The indigenous family support
program helped her connect to
her heritage and gave her a better
understanding of her identity.
“I’m not the same person that I
was,” says Spencer. “It really shifted

Renée Andor

Big award for a big-hearted student

The awardable Michele Spencer.

how I saw myself and it really made
me believe in myself.”
Spencer had no plans for schooling beyond the program, but says
she got the inspiration and courage
to continue on in her studies from
her time in that program.
“I learned to just listen to my
heart and what it was I really wanted to do,” says Spencer. “It gave
me courage to really follow my
dreams.”

E- books not catching on
Dylan Wilks
Contributing Writer

Despite the hopes of companies who are in the e-book market,
the ability to carry around dozens
of books in a conveniently small
package hasn’t yet brought about
a massive shift in how people read.
This holds true for students, who
cite required reading for classes
as one of the biggest reasons they
don’t read recreationally, be it with
a physical book or an e-book.
“I love to read but hardly ever
have the time, unless it is a non-fiction book related to a research paper
or assignment,” says Camosun
creative writing student Marlie
Van Roy.
English student Ryan Abbot
agrees, adding that the heavier the
workload is, the less time a student
has for reading any kind of book.
“Extra-curricular reading for
students is difficult at best,” says
Abbot, “especially for those with
four, five, or six courses.”
When she can find time to read,
English student Michele Hornell
goes for an old-fashioned physical
book as opposed to an e-book.
“I do not like to read e-books at
all,” says Hornell. “I prefer to flip
the pages myself.”
Tessa Brethour, another English
student, finds e-books really hard to
concentrate on.
“With a book you can isolate
yourself and bring it wherever you
want. With an e-book, I get distracted and don’t remember anything of
what I’m reading.”
English Instructor Debbie
Gascoyne understands the reluctance and believes the costs of ebooks to be another contributing
factor.
“To me, the e-book is a lesser
experience,” she says. “If I’m going
to pay 50 bucks for a book, I want a
book. I want the object.”
Gascoyne does believe that once
e-books are established, like how
music has been through iTunes,

they will become much more
attractive.
“It’s going to be great for reissuing copies of books that have gone
out of print, publisher’s backlists,
and things that are no longer available,” she says.
The Alan Batey Library & Learning Commons on the Lansdowne
campus is well into the transition
to e-books, with more than 56,000
electronic books as of March. It’s
easy to walk into the library and
wonder where all the books are
(they’re hiding upstairs).
Reclaiming space in libraries
to create areas where people can
read is one of the immediate and
obvious benefits of shifting to ebook libraries.
“You don’t have to worry about
space,” says Gascoyne, “you can
make it our library and turn the
space over to people.”
Another obvious benefit of ebook libraries is how much more
widely accessible a particular book
is. With e-books any number of
people can have that book at a
given time.
In fact, the Camosun Library
allows any student access to their
complete catalogue online on campus or at home.
This won’t spell the end for
libraries or physical books just
yet—there will always be collectors
wanting a first edition or a rare
autographed copy of a book, but
it should serve as a wake-up call to
bookstores.
“The physical bookstore may
disappear,” says Gascoyne, “because they’re becoming expensive
and unrealistic.”
Camosun chief librarian Sybil
Harrison sees e-books as the future—one that Camosun has been
working towards since 1997.
“It is where we as libraries need
to go,” says Harrison.
What do you think?
nexus@nexusnewspaper.com
or TEXTBACK to 604–223–0076.

NEWS BRIEFS

by ERIN BALL

Poll finds Camosun’s
riding wants
Liberals out
Victoria Street Newz recently
conducted a poll of the Oak Bay–
Gordon Head electoral district,
which Camosun Lansdowne is a
part of, and found that if there
were an election held today, the
Liberals would likely lose the seat
to the NDP. Currently, Liberal MLA
Ida Chong, who is now facing
recall over the HST issue, holds
the seat and represents the riding
in the legislature. Chong obtained
23 percent in the poll, while the
NDP garnered 47 percent. The
Conservatives, who don’t have a
candidate, were close behind the
Liberals with 22 percent, while
the Green party had 8 percent.
The poll was conducted before
BC premier Gordon Campbell announced his intentions to resign,
and before Chong was announced
as the first MLA to face recall.
With so much upheaval in the
Liberal party as of late, it’s likely
that the Liberals have lost even
more ground in the riding.

Organization
calls for BC to end
child poverty
BC Campaign 2000, an organization that’s part of a national
network that promotes awareness about poverty in Canada,
is calling on the political leaders
of BC to commit to ending child
poverty. The 2010 Child Poverty
Report Card for BC found that in
2008 the poverty rate declined,
but according to the increased
number of families on income assistance and using the food bank,
they expect the 2009 and 2010
numbers to increase significantly.
The report calls on BC to enact
an anti-poverty strategy, to help
the one in seven BC children who
currently live below the poverty
line. The report calls on government to solve the child-poverty
problem by raising minimum
wage, welfare rates, and child-tax
benefits, among other initiatives.
Campaign 2000 was formed in
1991 to build awareness about
the 1989 all-party House of
Commons resolution to end child
poverty in Canada by the year
2000, which has obviously not
happened.

Cheesecake puts on
holiday peep show
The sequined-clad ladies of
the Cheesecake Burlesque Revue
have been entertaining fans of
burlesque in Victoria for the last
four years. They’re celebrating the
holiday season by putting on their
Naughty But Nice Peep Show on
December 3 at the Metro Studio,
and December 4 at Lucky Bar. The
shows are comprised of acts that
consist of memories revisited and
re-imagined, burlesque-style. It
will feature Cheesecake favourites of all shapes and sizes, like
Kitten Kaboodle, Betsy Bottom
Dollar, and Champagne Sparkles.
And no one’s off the hook: the
Cheesecake gals are sure to get
the audience involved, as they
encourage everyone to wear their
sassy holiday wear. There will
also be contests and prizes to be
won. Tickets can be picked up
at Lyle’s Place in advance, or at
the door. Both the Metro and the
Lucky shows start at 8 pm.

CAMPUS

nexus@nexusnewspaper.com

Renée Andor
Staff writer

Camosun’s new bursary-application process turned out record
numbers of applicants, and is also
greener for the environment.
The college’s new system for
accepting bursary applications
cuts down on the paperwork significantly. Before, students had to
fill out separate sheets of paper by
hand for different bursary applications, but now they only fill out one
online application, which covers all
of the bursaries.

“You don’t want to
spend your time filling
out a load of sheets
when you can just type
one. Just press enter
and it’s gone.”
Dana Marchand
camosun student

Lynda Funston, Camosun’s
coordinator for financial aid, says
the school received 842 applications this fall, compared to 653 last
fall, and saved over 3,000 sheets
of paper in the process. This is the
most bursary applications they’ve
ever received, and Funston says
it’s because it’s easier for students
to apply.
“It’s a much simpler and more
straight-forward process for stu-

alex haro

Camosun bursary applications reach electronic age

Applying for bursaries through Camosun’s website is as easy as giving money to a freaky hand popping out of a computer monitor. Whoa.

dents,” says Funston. “Students are
saying that it’s faster to complete a
bursary application and it’s taking
them very little time.”
Camosun university transfer
student Dana Marchand applied
for bursaries this fall. She agrees
that the new method is a time-saver
for students who are busy with
schoolwork.
“If you’re at school and you’re
really busy already, you don’t want
to spend your time filling out a load
of sheets when you can just type
one,” says Marchand, “just press
enter and it’s gone.”
According to Funston, students

receiving bursaries for the fall semester will get a letter in the mail
by the end of November.
The online winter bursary applications will be open from January 10
until February 8. Funston is happy
to be able to provide students with
access to the updated system.
“We really do think it is a good
thing,” she says. “We wanted to
get to the electronic age and have
something available for students
that would make it faster and easier
for them.”
It’s important to note that scholarship and award applications still
need to be filled out by hand, as

their requirements often vary by
donors and are specific to certain
programs.
Angie Bowles, program assistant for the school of arts and science,
says the school is always updating
the criteria to try to ensure as many
students meet the requirements of
awards as possible.
“We’re always looking at the
criteria of our awards on a yearly
basis to make sure they fit within
our programs and what student
needs are,” says Bowles.
This year the School of Arts and
Science handed out 91 awards and
scholarships, which totalled $40,000

in funds given to students.
According to Bowles, most
awards and scholarships are valued
between $500 and $1500, which is
significant money for students.
“That can make a big difference
for a student,” she says.
Bowles encourages students
to research the awards available to
their program, as she says there are
lots to choose from.
“It’s always important that the
student makes every effort to apply,”
says Bowles. “A lot of the time students feel that they wouldn’t qualify,
but we have a broad range of awards
in all of our areas.”

The w
combi inning entry
ne the
will
best a
of our
sp
curren
t logo ects
brand
w
new fe ith a
el.
Deadli

ne Dec
ember
8
noon

SPORTS

nexus@nexusnewspaper.com

by ERIN BALL

Chargers gear up for
holiday classics
The Camosun Chargers
basketball teams won’t be
idle over the holidays, despite
all the seasonal temptations
inviting them to relax for a bit.
Both teams will be in the middle
of their seasons and can’t risk
descending into the lazy days
and nights of drinking, eating,
and classic-movie watching
most of us take part in during
the holidays. The women’s team
will host their annual Christmas
classic tournament at the Pacific
Institute for Sport Excellence
(PISE), December 28–30, while
the men’s team takes a road
trip to Washington State. The
games the Chargers play over the
holidays aren’t league games,
but will help the teams keep in
shape, and improve their game,
while playing teams they might
not normally play in the regular
season. For more info on the
tournaments and games over the
holiday season, and for other
updates on what the team’s up
to, check out the Chargers blog at
camosunchargers.blogspot.com.

Rec department hosts
dance fundraiser
Camosun Fitness and
Recreation recently teamed up
with Victoria Dance Theater
(VDT), the company that teaches
dance classes and workshops
at Camosun, for a fundraiser. A
Night of Dance was held in Young
216 at the Lansdowne campus
and featured VDT students
putting the skills they’ve learned
in dance onto the stage in front
of an audience. “It was small,
but it went well,” says Meghan
Lambeth, fitness and recreation manager. The event raised
approximately $200. Lambeth
says that they were hoping for a
better turn out, but despite the
small numbers, they’re planning
a similar fundraiser again next
fall. Funds raised will go towards
equipment for the gym, “likely
yoga bolsters,” according to
Lambeth.

The Chargers women’s volleyball team is working towards a spot
in the provincials this year with their
strong play, but despite a lot of hard
work the team is still struggling to
bring home some wins.
The young team has shown lots
of promise in their matches this
semester, but they are still lacking
points.
Despite the frustration, the
Chargers have continued to play
hard and not give up.
Head coach Chris Dahl is approaching different strategies to
bring overall success to the team.

“It’s taken me some
time to assess what
skills each player has
come into the program
with. Some come with
various levels of
experience and some
come with bad
habits.”
chris dahl
camosun chargers

“We’re developing and moving
along a pathway towards where
we think we need to be for second
semester,” says Dahl.
Dahl’s decisions as a coach are
not based solely on the scoreboard.
He’s currently working on a style of
play that will set his athletes up for
the next level.

The Chargers women’s volleyball team is struggling, but is still aiming for the provincials this year.

“The results have not been
exactly what we have hoped for,
but we’re not basing everything
around wins or loses,” says Dahl.
“I’m confident that each athlete has
the potential to make a run for the
provincial playoffs and earn a birth
to the national championships.”
With the bulk of last year’s roster
moving on, the new-look Chargers
have their work cut out for them
between now and the spring.
“It’s taken me some time to
assess what skills each player has
come into the program with,” says
Dahl. “Some come with various
levels of experience and some come

with bad habits.”
The team has started the year
off slightly better than in previous
seasons, standing at two wins,
four losses, but the Chargers look
forward to a stronger second
semester.
The women are dedicated in
their training as they continue to
practice at Pacific Institute For
Sports Excellence (PISE) every day
of the week.
Second-year veteran Kelsey
Fletcher came to Camosun to pursue
a degree in business and volleyball.
She explains the improvement
in Dahl’s coaching, compared to

previous years’ coaches.
“Chris is one of the most organized people I have ever met,” says
Fletcher. “Everything is planned
out according to the next level of
skill and we keep learning. Chris’
plan is for us to be more of a threat
in the second semester, and I think
we are going to be successful.”
Dahl says that what he’s most
impressed with is the calm and
maturity his players displayed in the
first portion of the season.
“Whether we get outcomes, it’s
irrelevant,” says Dahl. “If our goals
are outcome-based, then we’re setting ourselves up for failure.”

Dodgeball phenomenon hits Camosun College
Emily Laing
Staff writer

Multi-coloured balls rocket
across the court. Grunts and yells
echo throughout the gymnasium.
This isn’t some cruel form of torture—this is dodgeball.
The 2004 film Dodgeball
brought with it a resurgence of
interest in the game. Now several
Camosun students are joining in
on the fun.
Dodgeball enthusiasts are lining
up balls at the centre line 8:30 pm
every Thursday night at Lansdowne
High School gym for a smacking of
quads, chests, and, if participants
feel ballsy, faces.

“Even if you’re sleepdeprived, it’s easy to
come out and fire
some balls at people.”
Kase Devries
camosun student

The Camosun College Student
Society (CCSS) came up with the
idea for an on-campus dodgeball
club to bring students together,
and the popularity of the game is
spreading across campus.
“The space is working really well
and we like that there is consistency
in location,” says CCSS external af-

fairs executive Matteus Clement. “It
has lots of room and will be able to
accommodate a doubling of players
if that time comes.”
The main objective of each team
is to eliminate all members of the
opposing team by hitting them with
thrown balls, catching a ball thrown
by a member of the opposing team,
or forcing them to move outside
the court boundaries when a ball
is thrown at them.
Environmental technology student Kase Devries was formerly
involved with a well-known dodgeball league in Alberta, Lister Dodgeball, while attending university.
He’s pleased to see the turnout at
Camosun and finds this sport to be
therapeutic.
“It’s free anger management,
especially for how stressful school
is,” says Devries. “Even if you’re
sleep-deprived, it’s easy to come
out and fire some balls at people.
Some people think it’s civil war but
there’s huge technique involved.
It’s a team sport, so there’s roles
for each team member and some
competition.”
Spectators are surprised to find
out how enthusiastic some participants are over the sport.
UVic student Lindsay Harper
played dodgeball during her childhood but now enjoys the game more
on the sidelines.
“Agility and speed are factors in
this game which I lack, but dodge-

EMILY LAING

SPORTS BRIEFS

Camosun student Nick Patenaude gets the full dodgeball experience.

ball is a great outlet for channeling out hatred,” says Harper. “It’s
made a leap over the years and has
brought a certain sexiness to a gym
sport.”
The true beauty of the game
of dodgeball is that it’s accessible
to people of all ages and sporting
abilities, since everyone has the

potential to get involved and be a
part of the team.
“People are having fun,” says
Clement, “and, while slightly competitive, no one is feeling left out or
put down.”
What do you think?
nexus@nexusnewspaper.com
or TEXTBACK to 604–223–0076.

FEAT

December 1, 2010

Social media: bigger
O

n a quiet day in February 2004, an encompassing, engulfing
presence came online, casting a shadow a mile wide and
obliterating all social-media networks that dared to stand in its way.
The internet had a new godfather, known only as Facebook.
Five-and-a-half years later, Facebook is, without a doubt, on top
of the social-networking pile and shows no signs of loosening the
stronghold on its 500-million-plus users.
After the initial shock of being dropped like Joe Pesci in Goodfellas, other online social communities are once again starting to
cautiously pop up across the world wide web.
Facebook, secure in its role as North America’s biggest distraction, is content now to run quietly in the background of people’s
lives, allowing a new generation of online communities to emerge
from founder Mark Zuckerberg’s virtual Le Brea Tar Pits.
These new, phoenix-like networks have read the handouts, taken
notes, and crunched the numbers, determined not to repeat the
follies of their predecessors.
Shaking tar from their wings, sites like Twitter, Flickr, and Tumblr
are finding a niche market and hanging on for the long haul.

A little Twitter told me…
Twitter has become a beacon of light in this modern age of waning
attention spans and hectic lifestyles.
Every corporate entity and their dog has a Twitter account, sending out 140-character blasts updating followers on everything
from press releases and pending mergers, to what the VP had for
breakfast and the awesome shoes she just bought on clearance.
While Twitter has gotten a bad reputation as chapter one in The
Stalker’s Guide to Celebrities, it does have legitimate uses outside of
discovering Britney Spears’ latest Starbucks must-have drink.
With print newspaper sales declining, online readership has
skyrocketed. Smartphones and e-book readers like Kindle and
Nook make online newspapers easily accessible, but still feature
traditional full-length articles.
Many people who find themselves in need of a speedy news fix are
now turning to Twitter for quick and dirty headline updates.
Local newspapers like the Times Colonist, Monday, the Saanich
News, and Nexus have all started Twitter accounts with multiple
updates every day, keeping readers up to date on all the day’s
top stories.
After winter’s sudden arrival on November 21, with Victorians
flying into their usual snow-induced frenzies, local papers kept
snow-bound citizens informed by tweeting bus-route updates
after the BC Transit website crashed from thousands checking
in about bus cancellations.
Not only are these Twitter pages keeping followers in the loop
about community and world events, but they are also keeping
their respective papers in people’s good graces by serving as a
public bulletin when all else fails.
Hollywood producer, writer, director, and animation mastermind Tim Burton began an unconventional Twitter account on
November 22 called Tim Burton’s Cadavre Exquis. Steering clear
of the typical celebrity Twitters that are all to commonly used to
whore out cheap as-seen-on-TV loot and soapbox about how
annoying they think paparazzi are, Burton opted for building a
creative collective.
Hoping to create a new adventure for his character, Stainboy, the
story-telling experiment calls on fans and writers to contribute
tweets to expand on Burton’s beginning line, “Stainboy, using

his obvious expertise, was called in to investigate mysterious
glowing goo on the gallery floor…”
People have until December 6 to contribute story lines with the
best of each day being chosen by Burton and officially added to
the story. The hope is to collaboratively build a Stainboy adventure, as well as draw attention to Burton’s upcoming art exhibit
at TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto.
Taking yet another approach to Twitter, local musicians Jon and
Roy have created an account to keep their name in good standing
with fans as well as to attract new people to their music.
Jon and Roy’s manager, Stephen Franke, says it’s important for
hometown bands to have a strong online presence, but that bands
need to be selective about where they dedicate their efforts.
“Every social media site if different, and each has their own purpose,” says Franke. “We use Facebook to showcase and market
the band, like a traditional website. MySpace is a dinosaur, and
it’s not very good for much, but it does work as a platform for
spreading music.”
While Franke isn’t sold on the notion that tweets will be the key
to launching the band into the musical stratosphere, he admits
that there’s a fuzzy logic to having an account.
“Our biggest reason for having a Twitter is to create a culture
around Jon and Roy,” says Franke. “It’s about having a presence
so we’re not left behind, but it’s definitely not our main site.”
The band also maintains a presence on music-sharing sites like
last.fm, and video-sharing sites like YouTube. Ultimately though,
Franke says it’s important to stay focused on the real objectives
and not get too caught up in the social-media craze.
“You need to focus on the music,” he says. “Focus on the music
and the networks that work, and ignore the bad ones. Music, or
whatever it is you’re doing, needs to come first. All the marketing
in the world won’t help if you don’t have good music. But if the
music is good, the marketing will take care of itself.”

Say “aged Gouda”
Flickr, which also launched in February of 2004, was developed
by Vancouver-based company Ludicorp, and was bought out in
2005 by Yahoo.
2006 through 2008 saw huge changes to the website, with a
significant increase to allotted uploads and the addition of video
capabilities.
Often lumped in with other online photo-sharing sites, such
as Photobucket, Picasa, and SmugMug, Flickr has gradually
come to be a well-respected site for photographers to display
their portfolios.
A budding photojournalist, University of Alberta student Sam
Brooks began networking and making contacts in the photography community.
With a little prodding from friends, Brooks created a Flickr
account of his own, quickly realizing the benefit of a site that’s
visible to non-members.
“It doesn’t have the same exclusivity as something like Facebook
does,” says Brooks. “A lot of my friends don’t have a Facebook
page, so I was able to share photos with them more easily.”
The user-friendly site is accessible to anyone with a computer
and doesn’t require an account to browse other users’ photos.
But as Brooks found out not long after joining, membership does
have its benefits.
“As I dove further in to Flickr, I realized that it’s a completely

different inter
caliber of phot
people use Fac
other part of t
comments. Th
occurs, there b
how repetitive
Brooks says o
photography c
other photogr
“Because Flic
that the comm
photographer
more of an ins
comments you

“On Faceb
what you w
on Flickr i
what peop
knowin

Daniel Germ
of Victoria, sa
Facebook and
“Facebook is
Flickr is abou
things that ar
one changes th
it’s about who
you, and on Fli
think of them,
those commen

Are you R

While Flickr
a very specific
ing. The site is
don-Levitt and
production co
Users agree t
bers to be rem
the original cr
In a video on
isn’t considere
This new app
Gordon-Levitt
And while the
members with
their original w
Czarina De L
says that she w
the site after h

TURE

nexus@nexusnewspaper.com

amanda richardson
staff writer

than Marlon Brando

rnet community. It attracts a more professional
tography than other sites,” says Brooks. “The way
cebook is to dump all the photos from an event or
their life on a page and get their friends to make
here’s a demand with Facebook that when an event
be photo documentation of said event, no matter
e or terrible the photography is.”
one of the best parts of being a member of an online
collective is having the opportunity to learn from
raphers.
ckr is a photographers’ community, you also know
mentary posted on the photos are coming from other
rs,” says Brooks. “That lends itself to being much
sightful critique of your work rather than just goofy
ur friends make.”

book it’s about who you know and
want them to know about you, and
it’s about the photos you take and
ple think of them, without actually
ng or caring who is behind those
comments.”
Daniel German
University of Victoria

man, a political science professor at the University
ays that a major difference between networks like
d Flickr are how individuals behave on each site.
s about social interactions and who you know, and
ut what you can create and the people that create
re similar or that resonate,” says German. “Each
he way you interact on them, because on Facebook
o you know and what you want them to know about
ickr it’s about the photos you take and what people
, without actually knowing or caring who is behind
nts.”

RECording?

is making the buck by specializing and catering to
niche, other sites, like hitrecord.org, are diversifys a multimedia site developed by actor Joseph Gord has recently become a professional collaborative
ompany.
that the work they post can be taken by other memmixed and remade into something new, as long as
reator is credited in the resources.
n hitRECord, Gordon-Levitt says that “remixing
ed theft. It’s an honor.”
proach to copyright and fair-use agreements reflects
t’s belief that current copyright laws are out of date.
site itself must conform to the laws of the land, the
hin the site have the power and freedom to share
work within their own community.
Leon, a hitRECord member out of Chicago, Illinois,
was immediately blown away when she first visited
hearing about it on Twitter.

“I couldn’t believe the creativity in the collaborations, and it
made me want to become a part of it, a part of this huge production,” she says.
The site, which features contributions of audio, video, pictures,
illustrations, and text, not only fosters art, but also helps to motivate people to be more creative.
De Leon says sites like hitRECord can help bring skills typically
learned in school to people who might not otherwise have the
opportunity.
“We have film schools that can easily teach us how to make
videos, but what about people who can’t go to those schools?”
asks De Leon. “It takes more than one brain to create a whole
entire project; hitRECord is a way to help build relationships
with others and work together.”
At the annual Sundance Film Festival in January, Gordon-Levitt
and members of the hitRECord community presented some of the
site’s feature collaborations, bringing awareness to hitRECord
and many of the multimedia productions.
De Leon says that the beauty of a site like hitRECord, where art
and ideas are constantly being remade and reworked, is that every
piece of work that it recorded has the opportunity to become a
part of something bigger and better.
“You can’t be afraid of messing up or receiving negative comments about your work. As they say, ‘One’s trash is another
person’s treasure,’” says De Leon. “I’m glad that I get to put
myself out there and share with others.”

A nod to Usenet

To put online communities in context, German explains that long
before Web 2.0 and social media as we know it today, a program
called Usenet was the main hub of online interactions.
Usenet was developed in 1980 by Duke University graduate
students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis and was similar to an online
bulletin board. It’s often thought of as a hybrid between email
and online forums.
German says that he’s not surprised to see interest rising in
community-based sites that have a strong focus on person-toperson interactions.
“It is kind of cyclical in that we had all these communities on
Usenet that were not really moderated,” says German. “Then we
started to see the fragmentation of the web where people started
to pull the information onto their own websites, and then the
problem was actually finding it. Now we have this sort of resurgence where we have people saying, ‘Let’s make communities
centralized again.’”
“The beauty of Usenet and any other medium on the internet is
that it’s been able to actually bring people together that wouldn’t
have been able to before,” continues German. “So now the distance doesn’t actually matter. Now we have the ability to create
communities around topics that otherwise would have been
impossible to foster because the subjects were too obscure, or
people wouldn’t have been able to meet up in person.”

No Tumblr-weeds here
Blogs are one of the broadest, and consequently most vague,
online networks out there today. Blogs can be anything—someone’s personal website, an expert advice column, a topical
photo-journal…
For UVic student Renée Jordan, blogging was a way to stay busy
after a car accident forced her to take a year off of university.

Jordan confesses that when she got married last summer she
couldn’t boil an egg, so when her husband began the Crossfit
training program, she quickly realized she’d need to learn how
to cook more than just cereal.
As Jordan began to hone her kitchen craft, the rave reviews from
friends began rolling in, as did the recipe requests.
To simplify things she began her blog, focusing on healthy eating
and clean cooking, on Tumblr in June, gaining upwards of 1,700
followers in just under six months.
“I’m still shocked that anyone other than my husband, who is
obligated to like my cooking, is enjoying it,” laughs Jordan.
Jordan’s followers come from every corner of the globe, and
with such positive feedback and reviews, it comes as no surprise
that Jordan’s blog is bringing real attention to her recipes and
providing opportunities for expansion.
“I recently had nine recipes published in a charity cookbook
with one of my pictures as the cover photo,” says Jordan. “And
since a month or so after I started, people on my blog have been
pestering me to put an actual print cookbook together, so I used
a print-on-demand company and am making it available to
whoever wants it.”
While Jordan’s initial goal with her blog was to provide easy-tofind recipes for family and friends, she’s now realizing the impact
of promoting her blog through other media websites to people
outside of her own social circle.
“A lot of people suggested that I get Twitter as an extension of
my blog,” she says. “There are people that don’t want to read the
whole blog entry, but want to see just the headline of the recipe,
so they can decide off that whether or not they want to read the
whole entry. It makes sense, because it’s quick and it’s easy.”
Jordan is careful to protect her online identity, saying that people
can never be too careful when divulging personal information.
When the trend is to tell everyone everything about yourself, it
can be easy to forget that the web is in fact worldwide.
“My blog is completely private. You would never know that it’s
me,” says Jordan. “I don’t have my photo or my name anywhere
on it, because out of 1,700 people following my blog, I know five
of them. I don’t know the rest; I don’t want them to know personal
information about me. I’ve mentioned that I live on the west coast,
but that could be anywhere from Alaska to Mexico.”

Welcome to the family?
Many people, like Jordan and Franke, check into multiple accounts on a daily basis, with the hope of having a broad and diverse
online presence. Each site has a different account, password, and
level of upkeep.
The future of social media will see a simplified amalgamation
of networks, according to German.
“When the ability is there to filter and classify your groups, and
say, ‘For this group I am this persona, and for this other group I
am this other one,’ but still have everything centralized within one
account, many people may start to migrate,” says German.
Presumably, the next wave of online communities will recognize
the need for efficiency and will be able to manage all other socialmedia sites within one centralized user interface.
It remains to be seen if Facebook will continue to play the role
of The Godfather’s Vito Corleone, or if there’s an Emilio Barzini
lurking in the wings, waiting to be the new leader of the socialmedia world.

ARTS

10

December 1, 2010

Jina Mousseau
Contributing Writer

For one hour on Wednesday
nights, the movement studio in the
basement of the Young Building at
Camosun’s Lansdowne campus is
filled with drums, sitars, and catchy
verses—a Bollywood dance beat.
Originally from Mumbai, Kiran
Kshatriya now makes her home in
Victoria. An instructional assistant in Camosun’s dental program,
she spends her Wednesday evenings teaching Bollywood dance to
women of all ages and backgrounds
through Camosun’s recreation
program.

“My focus is on having
fun, listening to a
variety of Indian music
and experimenting
with who you are in
the moment.”
Kiran Kshatriya
Camosun dance
instructor

The word “Bollywood” evokes
images of bright colours, incredible landscapes, and melodramatic
emotions. Of course those images
wouldn’t be in our heads without
the music and dance that binds
everything together.
“I think the reason Bollywood
music and dance has become so

popular is because it encompasses
the world sound stage,” says Kshatriya. “You’ve got reggae, hip hop,
rock, classical…”
When Bollywood films first
began, they were very traditional in their dance forms and were
based mainly on classical Indian
dancing.
“Women would dance for the
men to tell a story, or to offer some
sort of message to the gods, or have
the gods listen to their dance,” says
Kshatriya. “Which is why the bells
around the ankle are worn, so the
gods would hear the dancer.”
Another early Bollywood influence were the folk dances, also
known as bhangra, done in the
agricultural regions of the northern
Punjab state.
One of the types of dance taught
in Kshatriya’s class, bhangra illustrates sowing seeds, hoeing, and
cutting wheat through shoulder
and arm movements, and includes
heavy drum use in the music.
In modern Bollywood films
bhangra is still very popular, and is
blended with other dance types such
as hip-hop, house, and reggae. The
music also reflects this fusion and
helps to narrate the film, explains
Kshatriya.
“Bollywood music is generally
fun, funky, crazy, and silly, but it’s
also sad, dramatic, and romantic,”
says Kshatriya. “It’s telling a story
when you listen to the words of the
song, whether it’s feelings or emotions, values, or traditions that are
being held, or shouldn’t be held.”

jessica clark

Bollywood dance class taught at Camosun

Camosun’s Bollywood dance class offers a fun and enriching experience, with a lively soundtrack to boot.

As one of the largest centers
of film production in the world,
Bollywood films are viewed by millions of people, and have a feverish
following. Kshatriya explains that
everyday Indian culture is reflected
in the films, which adds to their
popularity.
“In India, traditionally, you sing
and dance at every family occasion,
for the birth of a child, mourning the
death of somebody, weddings…”

With the advent of internet
radio, traditional radio is finally facing a competitor that has the ability
to send it the way of the 8-track.
For years, some students have
started their day tuned in to their
favourite station and listened to
radio personalities spout the news,
tell funny anecdotes, and play music
that might have gone unheard
otherwise.
Although some students still
start their day this way, a migration
is happening towards the internet
and portable mp3 players as main
sources of entertainment.
Although it’s apparent that the
internet has become many people’s
preferred source of information and
music, there are students who still
find the radio a unique source of
entertainment.
“I love radio,” says applied
chemistry and biotechnology student Kirsten Peters. “I’m not very

good at finding new music, so it
introduces me to new artists, and
it’s almost social for me. I find a lot
of radio hosts quite comedic, and
like listening to the interactions
between co-hosts.”
There’s also something to be
said for the live, local perspective
that radio provides. Lots of people,
like university transfer student Melanie Orr, enjoy listening to CBC.
“I listen to CBC because it’s
informative and I find lots of good,
new music, and lots of Canadian
music,” says Orr.
Part of what may be working
against FM stations is that media
conglomerates often own them
and they focus almost entirely on
advertising revenue.
In this regard, many stations are
forced to try and appeal to the widest-possible audience, playing the
least offensive music to the greatest
number of people.
Although this makes sense financially, the lack of originality and

On December 6th the Women’s Centre will be
holding a candle light vigil to commemorate the 14
women who were murdered in 1989 at
École Polytechnique de Montréal

innovation leaves some listeners
wanting more.
“I use it as background noise
while I’m working sometimes,” says
visual arts student Alana Harnish,
“or in my car when I forget my
iPod.”
Time could be a factor as well;
students are notoriously busy.
“I just don’t have time to actually
sit back and listen,” says Nicole
Mercer, a psychology student.
A likely scenario sees students
subscribing to podcasts of their
favourite radio shows, which will
then download automatically. This
allows people to listen to the radio
show at a time that’s convenient for
them, regardless of when the show
actually aired.
Another possible reason why
students spend less time listening
to the radio is that so many local
stations target an older audience.
The Q, The Ocean, and JACK
FM are examples of music-oriented
stations that cater to an older demographic than the typical student.
The target audience at
Camosun’s CKMO Village 900 is
people between the ages of 25 and
54, according to station manager
Brad Edwards.
Edwards, who has been in the
radio industry for many years, still
believes in the viability of the medium and says it’s future is still solid,
despite the threat posed by online
alternatives.
“Radio is a very powerful tool,”
says Edwards, “and it’s only as effective as the creativity that’s put
into it.”

says Kshatriya. “When you see
this in Bollywood movies it sort
of supports the whole cultural response to music and dance. And
it’s personal.”
Kshatriya, who has a new class
at Camosun beginning in January,
teaches dance to stay connected to
her roots, and to share something
she enjoys doing with other people,
something that is both fun and a
learning experience.

“I teach about trusting yourself,” she says. “Part of that is not
making it serious; my focus is on
having fun, listening to a variety of
Indian music, not just Bollywood
movie music, and experimenting
with who you are in the moment.
Also, just feeling more relaxed and
happier in some ways that you did
come out and exercise, and you took
time for yourself and had fun in the
process.”

Curtain Call

Humanity through death
Carol-Lynne Michaels
Contributing writer

If it takes a village to raise a
child, then it’s going to take a village
to mourn her.
The Life Inside is the Belfry
Theatre’s latest production. It focuses on a girl’s death and the
psychological struggle of the townspeople who must inform the child’s
family.
The girl’s family is seen only
through the windows of their home,
where the tragic news eventually
finds them. The presentation of this
moment is brilliantly irregular; the
news shatters them.
Nineteen performers bring the
19th-century landscape of a Belgian
village to life, without a single set
change. Included in the cast is music
composer Joelysa Pankanea. She
plays marimba, accompanied by
harp, upright bass, and violin.
The plot involves a girl dying
in the river and two villagers finding her. Word spreads and soon
the whole village is en route to the
child’s home; they are armed with
news they know will destroy her
family.
Although it’s a story with very
little action, Life stands strong on its
unconventional foundation.
Case in point is its awkward
but clever introductory segment
where the entire musical score is
heard. This disclaimer-style intro

ensures the play’s flow, making sure
spectators won’t be jarred out of
vital moments. With the songs preembedded, the music is familiar.
The reason Life gets away with
its unusual techniques is because
of the cumulative skill of the cast.
A handful of them are local theatre
directors with established theatre
companies, while the youngest
performer will be a published author
next year—despite the pressures of
elementary school.
Certain performers extend far
beyond the ensemble; most of them
are experts in their craft to begin
with.
The Old Man, played by Richard Newman, carries the story in
action and in feeling. The Mother
is played by Jan Wood, who steals
all sympathy despite her hard pale
features.
The big hits are the music and
the emotionally explosive climax.
You’ll be humming the dead girl’s
haunting theme song on the way
home. Plus, any preconceptions you
might have of how music should
fit into a theatrical piece will be
eliminated.

The Life Inside
November 16—December 19
Belfry Theatre
$16.50-27.75
belfry.bc.ca

Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows will certainly end the popular Potter movie franchise with
plenty of box-office dollars. In this
movie, director David Yates shows
he can do more than play with young
love and teen angst, as he moves
away from just focusing on one
aspect of growing up. Instead, Yates
now shamelessly borrows from his
contemporaries.
Good and bad, the film has the
feel of Lord of the Rings in its look
and structure. But what’s more
interesting is Yates finally getting
Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson,
and Rupert Grint to show off their
acting abilities, like with those lingering animosities that can divide
the fellowship.
But it’s the last stage of their
lives that they have to finally adapt
to, that of an adult and the responsibilities they have to face.
Too much time in the saga is
spent with Potter second-guessing

As the days go by, more and
more people are getting naked.
Breaking down the walls in regards
to what’s taboo in the public eye is
invigorating. Many mediums are
utilized to satisfy our voyeurism,
and the stage is a suitable venue.
Sure, anyone can go to the strip
club to drink watered-down beer
and watch women slither around a
vertical pole, but there’s no cerebral
satisfaction in that.
More impressive are the nude
performers who can stimulate their
audiences’ intellect, as well as their
libidos.
That’s why local performer
Rosie Bitts has brought Naked
Girls Reading (NGR) to Canada.
NGR is exactly as it sounds—nude
females reading literature aloud on
stage; the current touring show has
a holiday theme to it.

...and geeks worldwide gasped.

himself. He’s always been ready
to face up to Voldemort (Ralph
Fiennes), but can he overcome
him? Not just yet; it’ll take another
film to build to that final moment.
How that will translate to film will
depend on how Yates paces the
final chapter.
As to where the Potter franchise
will go next, there are the various
stories from The Tales of Beetle the
Bard to adapt to the big screen.
After all, Ben Hibon directed and
produced the beautifully animated
short The Tale of the Three Brothers
that plays before this film, and it
stole the show.

“People love racy
elements.”
Rosie Bitts
Naked Girls Reading

“What makes this interesting is
that you’re in this intellectual salon
where these really interesting pieces
of literature are being read to you,”
explains Bitts. “People love racy elements, but they also love just having
different events to go to.”
NGR was spawned when burlesque star Michelle L’amour read

Rosie Bitts, prepping for her next naked-reading session.

nude to her husband in their Chicago home.
The two realized how unique
and captivating reading undressed
could be and L’amour quickly began
selling out live performances of
naked readings. NGR blew up and
toured major US cities.
Here in town, UVic alumnus
Trish Caddy has been re-defining
nudity for some time.
Caddy created and posed in the
Babes Go Bare for Cancer calendar
that showcases normal women with
normal bodies, instead of Photoshop divas, posing nude.
Caddy has since been recruited
by Bitts to perform in the upcoming NGR. It will be the first time
Caddy appears naked on stage, and
she says her friends’ response to
this was surprise, but acceptance.
She hopes her family will react the
same.
“I haven’t broken the news to

my parents yet, but they were pretty
cool with me doing naked calendars
that were sold all over the world, so I
don’t think they’ll mind too much,”
says Caddy.
But is this type of entertainment
a novelty or a boundless art form?
“As long as it’s still taboo for
women to be nude and be these
multi-faceted human beings who
are seen in both a sexual and an
intellectual light,” says Bitts, “it’s
going to continue on and become
more and more successful.”
What do you think?
nexus@nexusnewspaper.com
or TEXTBACK to 604–223–0076.

It appears the breakdance scene
in Victoria has lost its flame. Dance
companies such as Karen Clarke
and Dansko no longer offer breakdance classes. But there are a few
passionate individuals who are
keeping the fire burning.
Robin Campbell, a 23-yearold breaker with the Filthee Feet
Crew, has been very involved in
the breakdance community since
2001. He’s one of the few breakers
left in Victoria.
“None of the kids in high school
were breakdancing in 2004, so it
died out,” says Campbell.
Some breakdancing groups,
such as the Reflex Foundation,
broke into smaller groups, and
most of the talented breakers from
Filthee Feet moved to bigger cities
like Vancouver to continue dancing,
simply because there was nothing
going on in Victoria.

“Breakdancing keeps
me balanced.”
kathleen ellis
local dancer

“There are benefits to having a
small community,” says Campbell.
“The youth are much more connected to one another and they have
a lot less to do.”
Campbell’s talent and passion
for breakdancing keep him focused

julia loglisci

Breakdancing scene battles hard

December 1, 2010

Curtain Call

Cleansing through humour
Dylan Wilks

Contributing Writer

Kevin Jinn is helping to bring breakdance back to Victoria.

and enable him to teach others. He
teaches classes every Sunday night
at Dance Victoria Studios.
Kathleen Ellis is a student at
UVic who attends Campbell’s
classes. She says breakdancing is
the one part of her busy schedule
that allows her to escape.
“It keeps me balanced,” says
Ellis. “Breaking is important to me
because it’s all about communication by expression of face, of body,
any type of movement. The breaking
community is growing in Victoria
and it’s nice to have someone like
Robin put together an opportunity
for people to see why freestyling
is fun.”
Kevin Jinn, another one of
Campbell’s students, recently held
a breakdancing workshop at Vibestreet Dance Studio in Victoria. He’s
bringing breakdancers—known

as b-boys—in from out of town to
help reintroduce the breakdance
scene again.
“The b-boys I am bringing to
Victoria are internationally known,”
says Jinn.
“B-boy Taiyo from South Korea
is a world champion in the breaking
world. Just watching them dance,
interacting, seeing how much they
inspire… that’s where the culture
is,” he says.
Jinn says it doesn’t matter what
kind of people come into a class.
Dancers are seen by their moves,
not how they act outside of dance.
Inside the hearts of many, there lies
a special place for breakdancing.
“I value this dance so much,”
says Jinn. “It’s my life.”
What do you think?
nexus@nexusnewspaper.com
or TEXTBACK to 604–223–0076.

It’s a testament to the quality
of the production when a play can
make you run the full gamut of emotions, from laughing to crying, with
stops everywhere in between. The
Memory of Water does just that.
Shelagh Stephenson has crafted
an insightful and sharply written
play about remembering, loss, and
family. The performance reminded
me of the whirlwind of emotions
that accompanies the passing of a
close family member.
The casting is fantastic, with
Melissa Blank’s memorable portrayal of Teresa being a highlight.
Her performance as her uptight
persona at the beginning of act
one, which had me peg her as the
responsible sister, is subtle and
nuanced. But she steals the show
during a drunken-rant scene that
had me strongly consider that they
may actually be drinking real alcohol on stage.
Blank’s performance was certainly not the only highlight, as
every performer has their moment
to shine. From Lorene Cammiade
as Mary, to Odile Nelson’s portrayal of Catherine, all the sisters
get adequate stage time to draw
the audience into their roles. Even
though Elizabeth Brimacombe’s
Vi character is deceased, she gets

a powerful but subtle monologue
about her last months with Alzheimer’s that would make even the
most stoic patron misty-eyed.
Mur Meadows as Mike and
Rob Cruse as Frank round out the
cast as the men involved with the
dysfunctional sisters’ lives.
Despite the powerful emotions
running amok, this is an incredibly
funny play. The strong British vernacular is quite interesting to hear
when spoken without the usual accompanying accent. The profanity
is often hilarious in its delivery.
Lisa Leighton’s costume design
is of particular note; each character
is as much on display through their
attire as they are through the wonderful performances.
Before Brimacombe even
spoke at the beginning of the play
you could tell exactly what kind
of woman she was and when she
had lived from her dress, posture,
and the soundtrack, provided by
Joan Patrick. With Angela Henry’s
direction, Langham Court Theatre
has put together a remarkable show
that’s not to be missed.

The Memory of Water
Until December 4
Langham Court Theatre
$16-18
langhamcourttheatre.bc.ca

Noise Addict

BY ALLI PICKARD

The costumed crusaders
Sometimes, when diehard music
fans think about bands, they think
about the outfits they wear; sometimes they go so far as to emulate
them by creating their own versions
of the bands’ outfits. Emulating the
look of some bands means their fans
wear makeup or douse their bodies
in fake blood and fur. Looking like
attendees of an anime convention,
they march to the bands’ shows,
checking out the other fans to see
what they could do better next time
out. But these three bands also
have good music backing up their
costumes.
Known for their over-the-top
stage performances and the most
fake blood you’ll ever see used in
one night, long-running metal band
Gwar (myspace.com/gwarofficial)
have proven since the ’80s that
costumes are not just for lame disco
bands. The 1997 album, Carnival
of Chaos, features heavy riffs and
skull-crushing vocals on songs like
“Penguin Attack” and “School Prostitute.” Material from this album is
rarely performed by the band, even
though it contains some of their
best songs.
We head up north to respect
another band that has a love of
wearing costumes. Finland’s Lordi
(lordi.fi) take costumes to a level
previously only reached by KISS in
the ’70s, getting mad when tabloids
try to print pictures of them out of
costume. Their 2006 release, The
Arockalypse, is Lordi’s third album;

One of the handsome Gwar guys.

the album track “Hard Rock Hallelujiah” won the 2006 Eurovision
song contest. This album is full of
melodic songs to both rock out and
lift your lighter to. Featuring artists
such as legendary metal vocalist
Udo Dirkschneider and Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider and Jay Jay French,
this is album is highly recommend
for your holiday listening.
Last but not least, we have the
mother of all stage costumes and
theatrics, God himself, Alice Cooper (myspace.com/officialalicecooper). Cooper has been there, rocked
that; everything and anything has
been done by him. His 1973 album,
Billion Dollar Babies, takes the
cake when it comes to controversy.
Featuring classics amongst the
longhairs like “Elected” and “No
More Mr. Nice Guy,” this album is a
holy grail. Cooper proved you don’t
have to be pretty to be a rock and
roller, or to create good music.

COLUMNS

nexus@nexusnewspaper.com

Worth the Trip?
BY SHAWN O’HARA AND ALEX PASK

Campus Café
Lansdowne campus
Big Breakfast
$5.59

Presentation and service
Alex: The Camosun cafeteria is consistent with speed and quality. The cook served
up a side of vague conversation, which was appreciated, but when Shawn and I
sat down we had to swap our meat. Sexy? Nope—he had my bacon and I had his
sausage.
Shawn: The cook here is a champion. He was making meals with equal care for
about six different people. The meal initially looked pretty good, but like a Tim
Burton movie, everything was just a little off. The sausages were already cooked
and just retrieved from a bin, the hashbrowns were piled to one side of the counter, and he kept spraying the grill with... something.

Taste
A: Everything tasted fine. I had the bacon, so I didn’t have to endure the charred
pegs of sausage that Shawn had. The hashbrowns, however, were little seasoned
nuggets of joy.
S: This was a pretty mediocre meal. The sausage was awful. Awful. It tasted like it
was left out in the sun. They could have at least put it on the grill for a minute or
two. The saving grace was the potatoes. They were nicely spiced, and tasted more
or less real.

Zellers Family
Restaurant
Hillside Mall
All Day Breakfast
$6.99

,

#:/BPNJ,BWLB
My boyfriend gave me a wonderful gift this fall—a Dutch oven.
Fart jokes aside, Dutch ovens are
a wonderful asset to have in any
kitchen.
My dutch oven is entirely cast
iron, including the lid. This allows
for incredibly even and fast cooking.
It also looks like a badass witch’s
cauldron and I love it.
You can cook many varieties of
dishes in it; because of it, I’ve been
mainly on a stew bender since October, and with the onset of this frigid
weather, I see no end in sight.
The key to nice stew is browning. Brown everything! Your meat,
your veggies, everything. This step
may seem unnecessary, but it allows
for vegetables to stay more intact,
and makes meat juicier and more
flavourful.
To brown meat, I coat it in a
mix of flour and paprika, and toss
the meat in it. Then, in a hot pan, I
sear the outside. Don’t cook it too
long; just enough to have a welldone outside.
For vegetables, I simply toss
them into a medium hot Dutch oven
with about a tablespoon of butter
and oil until they just start to soften.
With that in mind, lets get busy.
This Is Stew-pendous!
•

•
•
•

Presentation and service
A: The Zellers Diner is a cross between a White Spot and a hospital cafeteria. Once
again we’ve found one of Victoria’s gems that only the elderly frequent. Glasses of
milk and rice pudding for all! The food is cheap and the portions are large. It looks
better then I had anticipated.
S: There must be one academy that trains every diner waitress in the world. I don’t
think she made eye contact with me the entire time we were here. Not that I was
trying to make a move on her or anything, but it would have been nice to feel like
a human. It seems like this place wanted to go for a kitschy diner feel, but didn’t
have nearly enough shit to hang on the walls. There’s like six bowling pins and a
sled. Really weird.

Taste
A: The first couple bites were amazing, then the overwhelming hunger wore off and
I realized what I was eating. The margarine-soaked bread tasted like chemicals
and the scrambled eggs were slimy. Coming in for the save were the well-cooked
bacon slices and the real potato slices. Overall, it was your average rest-stop, diner
breakfast.
S: I feel like the meal came from a time machine. Not only did it travel here from
the Cold War era, but also nobody felt like reheating it. Everything was fine initially,
but upon the most minute of inspections, it was all cold and tasteless.

And the winner is...
Campus Café

Verdict
The choice is a tough one. Zellers has non-disposable plates and forks and refillable coffee, but cafeteria is cheaper, and the potatoes are better. It surprises us,
too—Campus Café for the win!

Heat a large stock pot (or Dutch
oven!) to medium heat. Melt butter in pan and add all vegetables.
Once browned, add approximately
6–8 cups water (more if you have a
bigger pot; this is all my Dutch oven
holds), with paprika, bay leaves, and
peppercorns. Bring to a boil. In separate pan, heat oil to medium-high
(it will be hot enough when a drop
of water evaporates near instantly
when splashed in the pan). On
a large plate, mix flour and 2 tbs
paprika together. Toss stew meat in

mixture, and then add meat to pan
(you may use flour for thickening).
When all meat is evenly browned,
put into soup. Allow to simmer. In
my Dutch oven, I have very tender
stew meat in about an hour and a
half. In a stock pot, you’ll have to
augment this time. The meat will
cook quickly, but it can take a few
hours for it to become very tender.
With time, the meat becomes completely and deliciously succulent.
Patience is key.
Tasty tip: I use a stainless steel
tea bomb to hold my bay leaves
and peppercorns so I don’t have to
pick them out while eating. Want
another tip? Sure: to thicken your
stock, remove a few ladles of broth,
and put into a small sauce pan. Take
the flour left over from coating the
meat, and whisk into the reserved
broth. Bring it to a boil, and then
reintroduce to the stew. This thickening technique is also a great way
of making tasty gravy.

INTERURBAN VOLUNTEERS WANTED!
Contribute to your school
newspaper. contact us today
to get started.

Asking Santa for the right
video-game system isn’t as easy as
it seems. If social gaming isn’t the
first thing on a nerd’s mind, they
should consider the following:

•

•

•

•

Nintendo’s Wii can’t be beat:
the system is absolutely still
the best for family fun and great
competitive play in the same
room.
The Xbox 360 and Sony’s PS3
provide some high-intensity,
industrial-strength graphics.
The edge belongs to the 360 and
the game Bayonetta.
To disconnect from the couch,
both the Sony and Microsoft
game consoles have their own
version of the Wiimote now,
respectively known as Move
and Kinect.

•

•

The PS3 supports 3D video and
gaming. Just make sure you
have a compatible TV.
In your 30s? Nintendo’s DS
supports older handheld games
dating all the way back to the
Game Boy.
Analysts have predicted the
PSP’s demise from the get-go,
but if you want an alternative to
the iPod Touch that’s better at
gaming, this unit still has some
life left in it.
The iPhone and iTouch is coming of age with Game Center, a
new operating-system feature
that supports gaming, but the
touch screen/motion controller
interface has yet to prove itself
to the hardcore gaming crowd.

What do you think about these columns?
nexus@nexusnewspaper.com
or TEXTBACK to 604–223–0076.

First person, plural
Pat down or smack down—it’s
all in the viewpoint.
Personal freedom can seem
like a contradiction in terms, especially at this time of year, as we
head into the home stretch of the
fall semester.
The flipside of denial, the
amount of esteem banked in a personal freedom account, is what has
helped many people make it through
unimaginable scenarios with their
soul and mind intact.
It’s possible to retain some dignity and detachment in the face of
the overwhelming tromping on
personal spaces and freedoms by
others.
Around campus I can feel the
vibe—students scrambling group
projects together, writing papers
without the help of the Writing
Centre or counsellors (because
their hours suck just when we need

these resources the most), and possibly dealing with extra shifts, day
surgery, trips to an airport, braving
the post office lineups, applying for
a late bursary or—surprise!—here
comes the unexpected company
from Alberta.
Awareness of self could mean
getting through all of those troubles,
distractions, and stressors without
once reacting with alarm.
Responding with agitation is
a form of learned coping, which,
importantly, means it can be
unlearned.
Try staying calm and watching
the bizarre reactions from people
around you—it’ll blow your mind.
Separation by observation of the
situation (rather than behaviour
of others or yourself) is what it’s
all about.
Let failure teach rather than
deride. Engage in only those battles
that make a positive impact on the

Green your world

Protect the Juan de Fuca Trail
Many students have spent some
quality outdoors time hiking the
Juan de Fuca Trail, one of the many
gems of our west coast.
What those students should
know is that seven kilometres of this
47-kilometre trail are currently being slotted for resort development,
with cabins and roads encroaching
within 100 metres of the “wilderness” trail.
West Vancouver developer
Ender Ilkay plans to build 279
cabins, a lodge, resort facilities,
and caretaker cottages alongside
seven kilometres of the Juan de Fuca
Marine Park, between China Beach
and Sombrio Beach.
If built, the resort will add to
what’s known as tourism sprawl, increase demands for roads, increase

greenhouse gases, drive out wildlife,
and ruin what’s meant to be an allnatural wilderness experience.
Visit wildcoast.ca for more information, or attend the upcoming
public consultation on the trail and
the development plans.
Panelists at the consultation
will include former environment
minister David Anderson, environmentalist Vicky Husband, UVic law
teacher Deborah Curran, and more.
If you need any more incentive to
go, there will be free dinner, and
childcare will be offered for those
who have little ones but still want
to find a way to attend.
The consultation is happening
on Thursday, December 2 at 6:30
pm at the BCGEU Hall, located at
2994 Douglas Street.

December 1, 2010

#:1BN0MJWFS

goal without having a negative effect on the self.
What does personal freedom
mean to you? This concept offers
immeasurable peace and confidence; it can negate loneliness and
build impenetrable boundaries
no one can breach without your
permission.
It’s hard fought but well deserved—but the question is are
you prepared to cut through those
protective walls of denial in order
to earn it?
Do this: Stand up. Now,
straighten up those determined
shoulders, go to a mirror, and tell
yourself that you are a detached,
fearless fighter.
Never forget to ignore news
from negative-self, and tell mirror-self how utterly normal and
absolutely perfect you are—even
with all your flaws, flab, and flubs,
you are fab.

By Luke Holland
It’s my first day of work at a
new job and I just utterly annihilated
my boss at a beer-bong race. He’ll
hate me forever now. High-fiving
everyone on my way out of the staff
party, I hop on a bus to my buddy’s
going-away house party.
I’m half-cut, listening to Daft
Punk, sitting on a seat facing backwards on a double-decker bus.
It feels like I’m travelling back in
time on a spaceship for drunken
astronauts.
Arriving at the party, I spot the
girl I’ve been seeing, Monique. She
totally gives me the cold shoulder
in front of everyone and I have no
idea why. My apathy outweighs my
resentment.
I mingle with my friends at the
party. It’s going off—there’s a dance
floor, people are being duct-taped
to chairs, and the kitchen is coated

with a fine layer of purple liquid.
I glance around, trying to spot
Monique. The host tells me she left
in a huff for some reason. I’m too
drunk and care too little to go chasing after her to have a squabble. So
I pull a mickey of vodka out of my
backpack, pour its contents into a
two litre of Tropicana, and hit the
dance floor.
Two girls I haven’t seen since
high school are dancing together.
And I mean together.
So I do what any self-respecting
person would do when they come
across a scene like this—try to initiate a three-way.
With my alcoholic juice box in
one hand and my backpack over my
shoulders, I triangle-grind with the
two girls.
“We love your green shirt,” they
say, giving me doe-eyes.

The lobe controlling memory
functions in my brain blacks out
momentarily, and all of a sudden
the three of us are in the laundry
room making out.
Leaning against the washing
machine with my pants down and
my backpack still on, the two girls
start going down on me. My ego
points can’t help but amplify.
I hear the door open, and I look
up to see Monique standing there
with a look on her face that no words
could adequately articulate.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” she screams.
I am speechless and I look
like a retarded deer caught in
headlights.
She storms out; I don’t follow.
Result: Bridge = burnt
What did Luke learn today?
I’m an asshole.

Look for web exclusive content on
the Nexus website.
nexusnewspaper.com

Get your Christmas shopping done
between classes and check out
Camosun’s 12th annual holiday craft
fair in the Lansdowne cafeteria
from 10 am until 4 pm. There will be
tons of tables to browse as well as
raffle tickets on sale to win prizes
from the vendors. All proceeds from
the raffle tickets go towards the
Camosun College Student Society
food bank. Crafts for sale will include jewelry, felted purses, soaps,
quillows, art cards, and many other
nifty items.

Portland rock band The Dandy
Warhols have been around since
the mid-nineties and have released
nine full-length albums. They’ve
recently released a compilation
full of hits like “Bohemian Like
You” and “Not If You Were the Last
Junkie On Earth.” They’re touring in
support of the album, The Capitol
Years 1995–2007, and hit up Sugar
for a mid-week show with fellow
Portlanders (Portlandites? Portlandians?) Blue Giant.

Thursday, December 2

Sunday, December 5

The Breakmen, The
Shadywood Boys, Jason
& Pharis Romero, Flash in
the Pan

Drop-in and Dance:
Tribal Community Dance
Workshop

St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, 8
pm, $15-$20

Pushing the boundaries of
folk-bluegrass to new heights,
Vancouver’s The Breakmen are
holding a CD-release party for their
new album, Heartwood. Known for
their contagious stage energy, The
Breakmen mix a blend of roots,
Americana, vintage country, bluegrass, and rock and roll. This is their
third full-length album and they’re
receiving plenty of recognition as a
distinctive voice in Canadian roots
music.

Thursday, December 2

3rd Annual Rock Your
Awareness Fundraiser
Logan’s Pub, 8 pm, $10

This fundraiser, benefiting women’s
programming at AIDS Vancouver
Island, features As the Crow Flies, a
self-described psychedelic indiefolk-country-rock band who have
been impressing crowds for the
past year in Victoria. David P. Smith
with Scott Henderson, Hearse, and
Lonesome Larry’s One Man String
Band will also be entertaining the
masses, and burlesque divas will
be handing out free goodies and
selling raffle tickets. To get in on the
fun, bring your dancing shoes and
10 bucks for cover.

The British Columbians, from, you
guessed it, British Columbia (Vancouver, specifically) will be letting
loose at Lucky on Friday night with
locals Aegis Fang, who released
their debut album earlier this year,
and Vancouver alt-rock band Inventing the Dinosaur.

As part of Camosun’s four-part
Sunday dance workshop series, this
African-inspired session combines
traditional group dances with
rhythm. After a yoga-style warm-up,
students will be led through circle,
line, and other group dances. This
workshop is for everyone who loves
to move to world-beat rhythms.
The class will be hosted by Seporia
Jacobson, and will take place from 1
to 2:30 pm in the movement studio
(bottom floor, Young Building).
Admission is $15.

Monday, December 6

VCM Honour Jazz Orchestra with UJAM Young
Allstars
Head on down to the Alix Goolden
Hall at 7:30 pm on December 6
and catch the VCM Honour Jazz
Orchestra play some jazz favorites.
The UJAM Young Allstars join the
orchestra on stage for an evening
chock-full of big band, swing, and
funk. Admission is by donation.

Wednesday, December 8

Strategic Volunteering & Employment
Preparation: How to Get
When You Give
The student employment services
department presents the last in
their series of free workshops helping students prepare themselves for
the big, bad world of searching for
the perfect job. This session is being
facilitated by Beth Cougler Blom,
manager of training and outreach
at Volunteer Victoria, and will teach
participants how to find a volunteer
position that will enhance their
resume. The workshop will take
place at the Lansdowne campus in
Fisher 212 from 11:30 to 12:30 pm.
To register, call student employment
services at 250–370–4181 or email
employ@camosun.bc.ca.

Canadian songstress Allison Crowe
brings her Christmas tidings to
Victoria for a concert full of carols,
covers, and original songs. Bob
Benvenuti is a solo singer/songwriter and will be opening up the
evening. This seasonal, intimate
concert benefits Artemis Place and
HepCBC.

Wednesday, December 8

So We Know We Can Write
The creative writing department
will be hosting a free showcase of
Camosun students who entered
the Times Colonist writing contest,
So You Think You Can Write. The
showcase will be held from 11 to
12:20 pm in Young 216. Dean Norris-Jones, the winner of the contest
and an English teacher at Reynolds
Secondary School, will also be on
hand.

GUIDELINES
Each registered student at Camosun is eligible for up to 40 words FREE per semester. This
can be in the form of a 40-word ad or two 20-word ads. Drop off your ad at Nexus, Richmond
House 201, Lansdowne, email it to nexus@nexusnewspaper.com, or call the ad in at 250-3703591. Please include your student number and contact information. Small print: Nexus reserves
the right to refuse ads for any reason. No sexist, racist, homophobic, or otherwise derogatory
or slanderous ads. Business-related ads are $15 for 20 words or less. 50 cents per extra word.